Link: Why corporate IT should unchain our office computers. – Slate Magazine

It really is silly how many workers in corporate America are treated as infants in the presence of a computer. They are entrusted with sensitive internal data about their company and private information about their customers, as well as with making key decisions about the future of their department and business. However, in their computer, especially on the internet, they are treated as babies who must be physically (or rather electronically) restrained from wasting away their day on frivolous pursuits online (as though these were somehow categorically different from frivolity at the coffee machine, printer stack or water cooler). Meanwhile their ability to think creatively and work effectively is marred by junior-high levels of electronic babysitting.